A book to hand someone with the words, ‘Please enjoy’—something you can have fun with without having to think too much.

Ethan Wate was born and raised in the southern USA town of Gatlin, where people are very proud of their confederate history and nothing every changes. He longs to escape Gatlin and start a new life—until he meets Lena Duchannes. Lena has just moved back into town after living with her grandmother for many years. She is mysterious, beautiful and there’s something about her he can’t quite pinpoint. She’s also not like the rest of the bubble gum cheerleader crowd, which makes her an automatic candidate for outcast-dom. Ethan is drawn to Lena for reasons he can’t explain, and they fall in love—against strange supernatural odds.

I originally picked up this book because I found out it will be made into a movie with Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson. I then proceeded to read the entire series in about five days—I was so sucked in and captivated by the story I just had to know what happened next. The plot is fast paced, full of twists and way more interesting than Twilight. (There. I said it.) Lena is not a wimp, and although, in the second book ,she goes into a bit of a sad bitch mode reminiscent of New Moon—I stopped after that book, just so you know—she gets over it, moves on, and gets her shit back together. (Take that, Bella.)

But let’s get back to this book.

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An insightful teen novel with a touch of drama. It’s a little stalkerish, but you might be able to put that down to teenage hormones.

A is a teenager who wakes up every day in a different body. He has lived his life like this since he can remember and has never had it any other way. One day, he wakes up in the body of Justin, who is dating Rhiannon. A falls in love with Rhiannon, which is seemingly hopeless as every day he wakes up as someone else. How can he make this work?

This was an insightful book. Every day, as A wakes up in someone else’s body, we get to see their lives, whether they be mundane, whiny, dramatic or funny. Author David Levithan lets us get into each teenager’s head and shows us that, deep down inside, everyone has pretty similar concerns—trying to get through every day and making the best of what they have. I liked the descriptions, the different characters he woke up in and the movement from day to day.

A is really, really, really in love with Rhiannon and faces a few challenges. He’s trying to see her and communicate as often as they can. He’s also trying to get her to realise that she deserves more than what she gets from Justin (he’s a dickhead) and make her fall in love with him. He’s a different person everyday, and somehow he has to maintain his own sense of self, and show her that it’s this self, this person, who loves her and can treat her well.

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Neither whimsical nor brilliant. The best I can say about this book is that I was compelled to skim it to the end.

In hindsight, when the the book’s introduction, ‘A Note From Alice’, failed to stir any reaction from me other than, Seriously?, I should have left it at that. But I wanted to give the book a fair go, because look at that cover and think of the possibilities of a zombiefied version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

But any link to Lewis Carroll’s original text is tenuous at best. I wouldn’t have cared if the title were a tongue-in-cheek reference to Carroll’s Alice and that was it, but the entire book seems geared towards exploiting this link: the title, the cover image, the tagline ‘Off with their heads!’, and the series name, The White Rabbit Chronicles. If you’re looking for the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Alice Bell’s life changes the night she loses her family to a car accident in which she also witnesses her father being devoured by monsters. In hospital she befriends Kat, the embodiment of your typical tough and sarcastic best friend with a marshmallow centre in a teen novel. When Alice begins junior year (Is that the equivalent of year 11? I always forget) at a new high school, it’s fairly predictable that she finds Kat in the same school.

Anyway, it turns out that Kat’s ex-boyfriend—who you just know won’t be ex-ish for long—hangs out with a group of scary boys and girls, one of whom is Cole. The minute he and Alice make eye contact, Alice has staggeringly realistic visions of them together. Mostly they’re what would pass as wet dreams in a teen novel, but occasionally there’s a spot of portentous violence, too.

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This book needs a hug.

Charlie is a freshman in high school. He writes letters to a friend that we don’t know about, like a diary, filled with wry observations on his life and what’s going on in it. The entire book is in letter form—we never get a reply from his friend—and is filled with raw emotion, in what I imagine to be Charlie’s matter-of-fact, possibly even slightly monotone—but always honest—passive voice.

At first, Charlie doesn’t have any friends. He is a little weird—even weirder than the cool kind of weird—and it’s a bit hard for him to fit in. He makes friends with two seniors, Patrick and Sam, and begins to experience life, sometimes without really trying.

I first heard of this book when it was released and kept meaning to read it, not realising, ten years later, that I would be determined to read it because they’ve made it into a movie! I thought it would be a typical coming of age book, and I expected to be caught up and be able to relate to the story, because who hasn’t felt like a wallflower sometimes—on the outside looking in? It was a lot more than I expected.

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A book for people who enjoy fairy tale retellings with a twist.

Sunday is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. In a large family she is much overlooked, and she spends her time writing stories, which have a tendency to come true. Sunday can only write about the past, because she’s afraid of what may come true if she writes about the future.

She meets an enchanted frog in the wood behind her house and begins to share her stories with him. She and the frog become fast friends, and one night, when she kisses him goodbye, he turns back into a man. Except he’s really the prince of the kingdom, and when she meets him, she doesn’t know who he is. How will he ever get her to fall in love again?

This story is more than it seems. Alethea Kontis builds a world where every fairy tale you’ve ever heard of exists and has been integrated to the story in such a way that even the characters themselves know about it. (Oh, it’s a talking frog. It must be enchanted. Or remember that girl who pricked herself on a needle? Well actually…) If it were not for the richness of the language and the way the stories are told by Sunday, the narrator, you could almost feel like you were gossiping with the neighbours about the girl down the road who got pricked by the spindle. I quite enjoyed Kontis’s fresh spin on fairy tales, where everyone is aware of what might happen and takes care to make sure it doesn’t…although that doesn’t always work either.

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A fresh, new series that will appeal to teenagers and adults alike. Also, killer nuns, historical intrigue and romance!

Ismae is the 17-year old daughter of Death. Rescued from her life and delivered to the Convent of St Mortain, she is trained to be an assassin. Her mission is to protect the Duchy of Brittany’s heir, Anne, from her many enemies. Ismae is sent to court to kill the traitor set on destroying Anne’s future but finds that all is not what it seems.

I loved this book. First of all, there are killer nuns. Ismae is rescued from her father (who was always pissed that death sired a child with his wife) and sent to the convent. She discovers a natural expertise in poisons and learns how to kill people with different weaponry. I love how the nuns have their own talents, and how their many weapons are hidden in what I feel are realistic ways under their clothing. (Anyone ever seen an action movie and wondered just where the women put those giant guns under their mini-skirts? (No, not that giant gun!))

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The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa (The Blood of Eden, Book 1)

A compelling read, given Julie Kagawa’s brilliant writing and ability to create characters we can sympathise with, but it offers nothing new in terms of the vampire mythos.

Oh how I wanted so badly to LOVE this book! It had all the ingredients of a five-star read—most especially in today’s young adult (YA) market. Post-apocalyptic? Check. Vampires? Check. Did I hear you say, What about zombies? Check that, too (though they’re not named thus in the book, they are pretty much the mindless, walking dead with a one-track mind: to eat you).

Throw in a feisty katana-wielding female lead and a love interest worthy of being swooned at and it should have been a straightforward A+. Ach, but it pains me to admit that it falls short of being mind blowing.

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Twilight: The Graphic Novel (Volume 1) by Stephenie Meyer and Young Kim (Twilight Saga)

Twilight lends itself to the shoujo manga format much better than in prose or in film. Young Kim’s renditions of the characters are disarmingly gorgeous, but even they can’t redeem Stephenie Meyer’s story of destructive co-dependency. And then there’s the font.

Jen, graphic designer extraordinaire and pop culture aficionado, generously agreed to do a guest review of this graphic novel. You can read more of her writing at Evening Hour.

Ah, Twilight, the stuff that dreams are made on. It’s not every day that one book, whose very premise was born out of a dream—so its creator, Stephenie Meyer, says—can reduce the time-honoured traits of popular culture’s great vampires to glittering giftwrap in the sunlight. When Kat offered the comic for me to review, who was I to refuse the chance to return to all the loltastic awfulness that encompasses Twilight?

These days, comic book adaptations serve as extended editions in a sea of franchise fodder. Often poor and hurried productions, they’re an easy marketing tactic to gain revenue on the side and to appease the voracious and loyal consumer. For the disinclined readers among us, comics can be a great alternative to absorb a self-contained story without sifting through the boring bits, like watching the film version in one sitting.

Unfortunately, no fast-food serving of Twilight could possibly make me hungry for more.

Yet, despite the frequent jibes I make at the popular YA book, this first volume of the graphic novel is mostly successful. 

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Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick (Hush, Hush Saga, Book 1)

A bodice-ripper for the Twilight generation. If you look beyond its uncomfortably age inappropriate start, you’ll find unwanted but undeniable chemistry, highly realistic teenage logic and page-turning mystery.

Hush, Hush is a really interesting book to review. Its plot is reminiscent of a 1970s bodice-ripper where the older, more experienced hero antagonises the virginal young heroine as much as he tempts her. Becca Fitzpatrick doesn’t let a lack of sex (this is teen fiction, after all) prevent her from having Patch Cipriano forcefully seduce Nora Grey at every opportunity. They each have other potential love interests who make the other party jealous, but the once-intimidating hero actually becomes the safer option and they are forced to team up to survive.

Rape-tacular biology in motion

There are aspects of the book that don’t present well despite Fitzpatrick’s best intentions, and I’m going to get the crap out of the way first because most of it happens in the first half of the book.

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This is a book to be sped through, then read again and savoured and, when it’s tattered and the pages are curling, passed on to your kids.

This is the Melina Marchetta I thought I wouldn’t finish.

The story begins with a shocking scene of children trapped in a car wreck on the Jellicoe Road. But this isn’t the main story.

Twenty-two years later, Taylor Markham is elected to lead Jellicoe School in the annual territory wars against the Townies from the local public school, and the Cadets, who camp out in town for the summer holidays.

But Taylor has other things to worry about. Her dreams are filled by a boy in a tree who whispers in her ear. Hannah, the closest person she has to a mother, has mysteriously disappeared, and Taylor’s teetering on the brink of a breakdown—or worse.

What happened to the kids in the car accident and the boy on the bike who came along to save them? And what do they have to do with Taylor?

I was so confused, I killed a fairy before I even reached page 50.

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